Ex-Filipino CS:GO Pro Allegedly Scams More Than PHP 100K From Multiple Users
- Former professional Filipino CS:GO player Bacani has been accused by Philippine resident and streamer Molly Octaviano of scamming people online.
- Octaviano has reported Bacani to the NBI Cybercrime Division for allegedly scamming her off 2178 PHP ($45) by using a fake Facebook account to contact her.
- She claims that Bacani has been scamming people since a year across multiple titles like CS:GO, Dota 2, Mobile Legends, Valorant, and has also reported that 29 or more people have been scammed by him so far.
Ex-Filipino CS:GO player John Paulo “paulowow” Bacani has been accused by Philippine resident and streamer Molly Octaviano for scamming her off PHP 2178 ($45 USD approx.). In an alleged case of online fraud, Octaviano reportedly failed to receive any 'Valorant Points' from Bacani after paying him the complete amount. She has even lodged a complaint with the local ‘National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Cybercrime Division’ and shared a copy of it online. According to the report, she was scammed by Bacani after being contacted by him under the alias of Mark Ryan S. Pagalunan. He had offered her 8,775 Valorant Points at a very discounted rate via Facebook and, after receiving the said amount, ghosted her by deactivating that account.
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Former Filipino CS:GO pro accused of scamming people
A former Filipino CS:GO player who used to play under the name of John Paulo “paulowow” Bacani has been reported by Molly Octaviano for allegedly scamming 29 people or more. She is apparently one of his recent victims and was scammed while trying to purchase discounted 'Valorant Points' from him.
Bacani has previously played CS:GO competitively for multiple local esports organizations like Bren Esports and Fallen5, but there is barely any information available about him. According to Bren Esports' post, he joined them on 18th Jan 2020, but there is no information about when he departed the team or any news about his current whereabouts.
Octaviano official complaint letter against Bacani
Molly Octaviano has lodged an official complaint against Bacani with the 'NBI Cybercrime Division' and even shared a copy of her report online. In this report, she has detailed the entire incident from her point of view, as it had taken place, and here are all the key details,
- Molly Octaviano points out that an individual named Mark Ryan S Pagalunan had approached her online via Facebook on 16 Feb, offering Valorant Points (digital currency) at a discounted rate.
- After checking if he was a legit trader and getting a positive response from several people who labeled him “legit,” Octaviano proceeded to pay him 2178 PHP ($45 approx.) through an online payment application.
- Unfortunately, once the payment was made, Pagalunan started to ignore Octaviano’s messages and, after some time, deactivated the Facebook account that he had used to contact her.
- Octaviano started her own investigation into the matter and found out through her payment application that the account she had paid to was registered under someone named “Paulo Bacani.”
- Further investigation by Octaviano left her shocked as she found out that Pagalunan and Bacani were the same people and that she was not the only one he had scammed. A statement she gave reads as follows,
“He has used other names (Ken A Hidalgo, Kyle Cruz, Kevin Trinidad, and more). I reached out to other victims and was able to find out that there were 29 or more people who had experienced the same. Some scams amounting to 17,000 PHP ($350 approx.), 7,000 PHP ($145 approx.), and more.”
Allegedly scams people across CS:GO, Dota 2, Valorant
Octaviano, in an interview with Spin.ph, gave away more information related to the incident. She says that at least more than 29 people have been scammed by Bacani, with some incidents dating back to March 21, 2020. Through her Facebook post, she further alleged that Bacani has scammed users across multiple PC and Mobile gaming titles like CS:GO, Dota 2, Mobile Legends, and now even Valorant.
She also claims to know the modus operandi of Bacani, saying that it is more or less the same. He contacts an individual on Facebook and then offers them virtual currency or digital items at discounted prices. Once he receives the money, Bacani ghosts that user and deactivates the account. This is similar to what she has stated in her public complaint letter.
Octaviano also claimed that Bacani has allegedly scammed more than 100,000 PHP ($2063 approx.) so far. She has even submitted vital information like a copy of his Govt ID and Passport to the cybercrime department. She has publicly said that lodging this complaint has already exceeded the scammed amount, but that “someone needs to do something.”
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